Chad’s Morning Brief: Catholics vs President Obama & More

Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of February 7th, 2012. Give us your feedback below and tune in to Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty for these and many more topics from 6-9 am.

1. Catholics Turn on Obama (link)

Catholic leaders aren't too happy with the Obama administration right now. On Monday leaders of the Catholic Church made it clear that they are ready to go to war with the administration. It's a move that could affect the upcoming presidential elections.

Catholics aren't happy that they will be forced to cover birth control, sterilization, and abortion-producing drugs for employees. ObamaCare will force Catholic schools, hospitals, and charities to do something that goes against Catholic beliefs. According to FOX News:

“Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,” said Catholic League head Bill Donohue.

Already Archbishop Timothy Dolan has spoken out against the law and priests around the country have mobilized, reading letters  from the pulpit. Donohue said Catholic officials will stop at nothing to put a stop to it.

“This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets,” Donohue said.

This will be a very interesting fight to watch and see how it all plays out. A lot of Catholics voted for Obama in 2008, will this sway some of those votes? Stay tuned.

2. Romney Has Santorum in Cross-hairs (link)

Mitt Romney may have all the momentum in the GOP race, but one candidate does have him worried. No, not Newt Gingrich, it's Rick Santorum that the Romney camp will be focusing on heading into Missouri. According to the Daily Caller;

Minnesota and Colorado hold their caucuses on Tuesday, and Missouri holds a non-binding primary that day. Polls suggest that Santorum could perform strongly, especially in Missouri and Minnesota.

In Minnesota, Santorum actually edges Romney 29 percent to 27 percent. In Colorado, he holds a distant second place 14 points behind Romney, but leads Gingrich by 8 points, suggesting that he may be taking the place of the former speaker of the House as the Romney alternative. In Missouri, Gingrich is not on the ballot — having not filed the necessary paperwork — leaving an opening for Santorum.

The Romney campaign seems aware of the challenge and blasted out three emails Monday morning going after Santorum’s record. One attacks Santorum for “false attacks on Massachusetts health care;” a second is a statement from former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a Romney endorser, calling Santorum “an ardent defender of pork-barrel spending;” and a third announces a press conference that Pawlenty is holding to talk about Santorum’s “long history of pork-barrel spending.”

I can see Santorum becoming both the anti-Newt and anti-Romney. The question is, does he have enough time and money. I don't think so.

3.  Parents Groups Are Outraged!

Another Super Bowl, another day of ticked off parents groups. The Parents Television Council is outraged that singer M.I.A. flipped off the television camera. No really, that's what they are upset about. I was watching the performance and I didn't even see it. The flip off lasted for about one second which I guess is enough to damage the fragile mind of children these days.

But that's not all! They are also outraged about the amount of sexually suggestive ads this year. Either the Parents Television Council is bored and have nothing else better to do, or they have never watched a football game.

Players are always mic'd up and you see/hear far worse than a rapper flipping off the camera. As far as sexually suggestive stuff goes... get over it. There was no nudity and it was no different than any other game, hello... cheerleaders?

How about this Parents TV Council and all the rest of the groups like them. Next year, don't watch the Super Bowl. Tell your followers not to watch and see how that works out for ya.

4. Dumb story of the morning (link)

Yeah, Detroit is on it's way back...

Wayne County will send people door-to-door to offer thousands of foreclosed Detroit homes for as little as $500, a move that would keep a roof overhead for occupants and possibly get properties back on the tax rolls.

More than 6,000 Detroit homes, foreclosed because taxes weren’t paid, didn’t sell at auction last fall. The county treasurer’s office doesn’t want to see them abandoned and is willing to negotiate with anyone living inside, including owners who no longer have a right to the property.

Wayne County Deputy Treasurer Eric Sabree told WWJ’s Sandra McNeil representatives from his office will make the offer on thousands of delinquent properties.

“A person must prove to us that they are bonafide residents who unfortunately, I am presuming, have been paying their rent to somebody who apparently didn’t pay their delinquent taxes,” Sabree said.

Sabree said there are a number of ways people can prove residence.

“Not only through an authorized state identification card or a driver’s license, a cable … a utility bill — anything of those sorts are reviewed and then a determination is made and a offer to those individuals,” he said.

Sabree said the residents must agree to be monitored for two years to make sure they keep up the property and the taxes on the house. He said it’s a way to stop blight.

“A vacant house is not going to help anybody,” he told The Detroit News.

Charles Brown, 62, said he’s been squatting in his home for about a year. He said he installed windows and doors and uses the fireplace for heat.  ”I am still doing a lot of work,” Brown said. “It would mean a lot if I could keep it.”

A neighbor who rents, Freda Armstrong, said she would have purchased Brown’s house at auction.

“That is a brick house. I would have fixed it up,” she said. “A lot of people don’t even know these houses are for sale.”

A similar program last year led to the sale of 1,200 homes. The city of Detroit isn’t endorsing what county tax officials are doing with the real estate. Ed McNeil, who negotiates labor contracts for union-represented city employees, said it seems unfair to reward people when someone in the same neighborhood may never have missed atax bill.    Indeed, retiree George Philson, 63, pays $1,800 a year.

“I would rather have them meet their obligation like I am meeting my obligation,” he said.

John Mogk, a Wayne State University law professor who studies land issues, said 12,300 Detroit parcels were foreclosed because of unpaid taxes last year.    “There is no end in sight,” Mogk said. “The problem is just so large and overwhelming in Detroit.”

If this is what the second half in America looks like, I'm worried.

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These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App.